KLEM News Update April 17, 2010

The Board of Education approved the low bidders for the separate projects. E-S-A of North Sioux City will be responsible for asbestos abatement for the high school boiler replacement project. The firm will be paid 19-thousand 820 dollars. There were two bids for the work. Three contractors submitted bids for replacing the boiler. The Board of Education chose the low bid from Midwestern Mechanical of Sioux City, Spencer and Sioux Falls. The price is 254-thousand 440 dollars which is below the architect's estimate by 50-thousand dollars.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) An attorney for a Siouxland man charged in a 1998 killing near Beresford says a plea deal has been reached. But James Strahl's attorney, Phil Peterson, says he can't talk about it because the judge has sealed details of the agreement. Strahl, of Dakota City, was convicted in 2007 of murder in the 1998 killing of William O'Hare at O'Hare's farm near Beresford. The South Dakota Supreme Court later upheld a judge's decision to grant a new trial after it was determined that a witness in the Strahl trial had lied in an unrelated criminal case. Prosecutors say Strahl and O'Hare met at an adult bookstore in Sioux City. They said Strahl killed O'Hare with a hammer when he refused to drive Strahl home.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

(REMSEN)--Four friends left a Minnesota Lake in May of 1979 and traveled north to Hudson Bay by canoe. Remsen native Dennis Weidemann will be in Le Mars Tuesday to speak about the adventure he's written about in "This Water Goes North." According to Le Mars Public Library Director Sue Kroesche, the adventure that led the four young men from northern Minnesota to Hudson Bay will be presented by Weidemann in a slide show and he'll also talk about the experience. Weidemann is at the Library Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. His book will be available. www.thiswatergoesnorth.com

(SIOUX CITY)--Two promotions are being announced for the Sioux City Police Department. Lt. Marti Reilly now holds the rank of Captain. A 24-year-veteran of the police department, Reilly recently commanded the department's SWAT Team. He has a Master's Degree in Leadership and is assigned as the support services commander. He has experience throughout the uniform and investigative services bureaus. Sgt. John Kayl has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Kayl is a 16-year veteran of the police department. His career assignments have included the uniform and investigative services bureau. He is currently assigned to support services.

(ORANGE CITY)--A lagoon that a Sioux County District Court Judge has ruled violated county zoning is to be cleaned up this summer. According to the Sioux County attorney's office, Sioux Pharm Incorporated and Carol Kramer as a trustee of a trust and Alan Kramer individually were convicted of 152 zoning violations by Judge James Scott. Sioux Pharm Incorporated and the Kramers were accused of "an unpermitted use of a wastewater storage lagoon" on farmland in Sioux County's Washington Township. They were also accused of using the lagoon to store industrial wastewater produced by Sioux Pharm at its Sioux Center manufacturing facility. Judge Scott issued a 114-thousand dollar judgment for zoning violations in an order today (Friday). However, he also suspended 64-thousand dollars of the judgement, if zoning violations are abated by ceasing dumping or discharging wastewater no later than June 19th. The order also requires the lagoon to be emptied and its use in violation of zoning to stop no later than June 30th. The 50-thousand dollar civil penalty for zoning violations is to be paid by April 30th.

(SIOUX CITY)--A man from Mexico has been sentenced for illegally re-entering the United States. Twenty-nine-year-old Alejandro Gamez-Marquez was sentenced to prison after a December guilty plea to illegally re-entering the Untied States after being deported as a felon. The U-S Attorney's office reports Gamez-Marquez was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation in September of last year by Sioux City Police. He entered a guilty plea to illegally re-entering and was sentenced earlier this month to more than two years in federal prison. He is being held for the U-S Marshal's service until he can be taken to a federal prison.

(WASHINGTON)--A town hall meeting by Congressman Steve King will be held in Sioux City Monday afternoon. King's Sioux City town hall meeting is at Western Iowa Tech Community College in the Cargill Auditorium. King will deliver opening remarks and take questions from 2-3 p-m Monday. He'll also host a town hall meeting in Council Bluffs at Iowa Western Community College from 9:30-11 a.m. Monday. Both town hall meetings are open to the public and the media.

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